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Sporus VI
Pope Sporus VI (born Bragghimento dei Crudelissimi) is said to be the worst Renaissance Pontiff according to A Short Guide to Catholic Church History (Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies, 53). Biography Election to the papacy Fifteen prelates were in attendance for his election with "eight...certainly senile" (Saint, 53); among them: * Cardinal Balbo of Genoa * Cardinal Schotto of Mainz * Scataphorus, Patriarch of Alexandria * Italian cardinals * Greek (or Greekish) signor (or nobleman) * An English recusant cardinal, who documented a fight between Schotto and others. During balloting, a matter of pens - more so, the lack thereof - caused a great commotion between Schotto and the others leading to a knock-down, drag-out fight. Pontificate Sporus had three mistresses, a concubine, and fourteen illegitimate children - revealed as part of his "Honesty in the Church" campaign. He was prone to bribery, nepotism, and murder. One of the more famous scandals involved Sporus's interaction with Cardinal Bobbo. The two exchanged "gifts" - such as tainted quinces and lute-filled tarantulas - until Sporus threw the cardinal down a well. Sporus VI was the patron of the Italian artist Sandro di Garagiola who featured his sponsor in a number of frescoes, among those: * Pope Sporus Debating with Aristotle * Pope Sporus Dueling with the Spirits of Nestorius and John Hus * Pope Sporus Being Begged by the Curia Not to Abdicate and Go To Live on Patmos as a Hermit The pope built Villa Pasta near Rome, which stood until the 20th Century. Suffering from mal de siècle, Sporus began frequenting Capri, though he failed to establish it as a long-term papal summer residence. In October 1565 he was blown off Tiberius' Leap during a high wind and drowned. Inspiration Crudelissimi: the cruelest ones (Italian). Sporus is another name, similar to Ganymede, with classical antecedents. The word sporus derives from the ancient Greek word spora, meaning "seed, sowing", while the name refers to the young boy emperor Nero castrated and marriedWikipedia: Sporus. Sporus appears in the "The Tragedy of Nero", the dramatic piece discussed in Bellairs’s aborted Ph.D. dissertation. Poppaea Sabina, Nero’s wife, makes mention that: I know I am worthy to be Queen o'th world; Fairer than Venus, or than Bacchus' love, But you'll anon unto your cut-boy Sporus, Your new wedded woman, to whom, now I hear You are wedded too. It was also the name poet Alexander Pope used to berate a bisexual English nobleman, John Hervey, in the satirical poem, Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot (1734): Let Sporus tremble –"What? that thing of silk, Sporus, that mere white curd of ass's milk? Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel? Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" Bellairs’s use of the name probably comes from this reference, corruption being relevant to the subject of bad popes, and using a name from classical literature that carried with it unsavory connotations. Had Sporus VI a record in the Annuario Pontificio, the annual directory of the Holy See that lists all the popes to dateWikipedia: Annuario Pontificio, his quarter-century tenure as Pope would have overlapped with the the following papal tenures: * Paul III (1534-49) * Julius III (1550-55) * Marcellus II (1555) * IV (1555-59) * Pius IV (1559-65) References Category:People Category:Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies content Category:Popes